VIDEO: Noah Pridmore Interview
JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – Henry Jackson cranked the first walk-off home run for Carson-Newman in eight years to seal a 6-5, eight-inning win in the nightcap after winning 9-2 in the opener to seal its first South Atlantic Conference series sweep of 2022 over Limestone on Saturday at the Silver Diamond Baseball Complex.
"Any time you win a series, that's the goal, and we were able to do that," Carson-Newman coach Tom Griffin said. "We were fortunate in the last game to be able to get the sweep because they did a phenomenal job of hanging around. When they tied it up, you could sense 'uh oh, here we go'. Everything got quiet. We had to have someone step up and be the guy and I thought it was Noah Pridmore coming in relief and putting up zeroes against guys that were hot and hitting it well. Henry Jackson's home run was awesome. It was exciting to end that way."
The last time the Eagles hit a walk-off home run was 394 games and 2,976 days ago when Joe Tipton also hit an eight-inning blast, a two-run shot, against Brevard on Feb. 8, 2014. It was the team's first walk-off of any kind since April 3, 2021, a victory over Lincoln Memorial.
Overall in the series, Carson-Newman (22-15, 7-7) hit .370 as a team with six different players dirving in at least two runs. From a pitching perspective, the hurlers limited the Saints to a .260 batting average fanning 24 in 26 innings.
Griffin's group is now 13-1 all-time against Limestone (4-34, 1-17) in games played at Mossy Creek winning a series for the fourth year in a row. C-N's winning streak is now six games in a row as the team is over .500 at home with a 12-11 record.
Game One: CARSON-NEWMAN 9, Limestone 2
The Eagles started the scoring in the bottom of the second inning when Jordan Griffin (Ellerslie, Ga.) lined a one-out, two-run single into left field. Two batters later, Gunnar Ricketts (Hixson, Tenn.) dribbled a run-producing knock through the right side of the infield to put the home crew ahead 3-0 after two.
After a sacrifice fly scored a run in the third, Matt Parkinson (Whitesboro, N.Y.) laced an RBI single into left field to extend the margin to 5-0.
A walk and a double put runners in scoring position to open up the bottom of the fifth inning. Kilian Daughtry (Simpsonville, S.C.) pushed a base hit through the right side of the infield to bring in the duo and swell the bulge to 7-0.
Harrison Travis (Soddy Daisy, Tenn.) pushed the lead out to 8-0 with a two-out RBI single to right field in the sixth inning.
Lead-off homers from Joah Nelson in the seventh and Clark Burroughs in the ninth were sandwiched around a Ricketts roundtripper in the eighth inning to get the club's to the final score of 9-2.
Brayden Coe (Bridgeville, Pa.) improved to 3-2 on the season tossing six shutout innings scattering five hits and two walks fanning three batters.
Ricketts led the way offensively going 3-for-5 with two RBIs and two runs scored. Genter added three knocks with an RBI while Griffin and Daughtry each drove in a pair of runs.
James MacCallum and Brandt Cronebach posted two hits apiece to guide the Saints at the dish. Jake Contino yielded seven earned runs over four innings taking a loss for the second time.
Game Two: CARSON-NEWMAN 6, Limestone 5 (8 Innings)
After the Eagles opened the scoring in the top of the first with a sacrifice fly, C-N exploded for four runs in the second. Henry Jackson (Waxhaw, N.C.) split the gap in right-center field to bring in Griffin. With two outs and the bases loaded, Daughtry flared a base hit to center field to score two with a third coming in when the center fielder slipped to put the team ahead 5-0 after two.
Matt Bradley (Talbott, Tenn.) faced one over the minimum through the first three innings before Dylan Shugan ambushed the first pitch of the fourth cranking his second homer of the series to left field putting a dent into the deficit and make it 5-1.
With two outs in the fifth inning, Limestone found a groove at the plate. Brandon Billesberger lined an RBI single to left field. Clark Burroughs stepped to the plate representing the tying run launching a 3-2 offering over the left-field wall to tie the score at five.
Limestone left a runner in scoring position in the top of the eighth inning before the Eagles stepped to the plate in the bottom of the eighth. Following a strikeout, Jackson cranked a 1-0 pitch over the wall in left field for his fifth long ball of the season to start the celebration at Mossy Creek.
Jackson finished the game going 2-for-5 with two RBIs and two runs scored with Zach Boze (Gallatin, Tenn.) going 2-for-4 and Daughtry driving in two with two hits.
Noah Pridmore (Ootlewah, Tenn.) recorded his third win of the year getting the final five outs of the day with two strikeouts.
"I maybe had to come start the game so I was getting loose the whole game," Pridmore said. "I come in there and I was the next guy up. I got it done. I don't care about my stats or none of that as long as I get it done for my team."
The top three in the Limestone order combined to go 6-for-12 with five RBIs as each had two hits while the rest of the lineup had one hit in 17 trips to the plate.
The Eagles finish up their six-game homestand on Tuesday against Shorter before going back on the road. Broadcast coverage can be found at cneagles.com/live with audio and video streams available on cneagles.com/live.
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